Firsts on the 1st: New Series Characters Being Introduced in August 2012 Mysteries

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of August 2012 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new August paperbacks on The Mystery Bookshelf.

In this series of monthly posts, which we call Firsts on the 1st, we're introducing readers to new series characters who will make their mysterious American debut in print during August.

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Title: A Spoonful of Murder
Author: Connie Archer
Series Character: Lucky Jamieson, Soup Lovers
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the character: Lucky Jamieson is the owner of By the Spoonful, a soup shop in small town Vermont.

Her first case: When Lucky inherits her parents' soup shop she realizes it's time to take stock of her life. Should she sell her parents' house or move in herself? Does she really want to run a restaurant business? And what about her grandfather Jack, who seems to be showing signs of Alzheimer's?

But her life decisions are moved to the back burner after an icy blonde tourist is found frozen to death behind the soup shop. and Lucky is bowled over when her soup chef, Sage DuBois, is led out of the kitchen by the police. As suspicion and speculations snowball, Lucky decides that the only way to save her employee and her business is to find out herself who iced the tourist--and landed her chef in the soup …

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Title: Allergic to Death
Author: Peg Cochran
Series Character: Gigi Fitzgerald, Gourmet De-Lite
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the character: Giovanna "Gigi" Fitzgerald is the owner of Gourmet De-Lite, a chef in Woodstone, Connecticut.

Her first case: Business is looking up, thanks to her newest client, restaurant reviewer Martha Bernhardt. Martha has the clout to put Gigi's personal meal plans on everyone's lips. But instead of dropping a few pounds, Martha drops dead from a severe peanut allergy … right after eating one of Gigi's signature dishes.

When the distractingly debonair Detective Mertz identifies traces of peanut oil in Martha's last meal, Gigi suddenly finds her diet catering business on the chopping block. Now she'll have to track down who tampered with her recipe before her own goose is cooked.

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Title: Champagne: The Farewell
Author: Janet Hubbard
Series Character: Max Maguire, Vengeance in the Vineyard
Format: Hardcover

What we know about the character: Max Maguire is an NYPD homicide detective.

Her first case: Max Maguire flies to France to attend her friend Chloe Marceau's wedding. She meets the older and more urbane Olivier Chaumont, a juge d'instruction, or examining magistrate, and experiences a fairy tale evening. But when Chloe's widowed aunt is found murdered after the wedding dinner, Max and Olivier are shocked back into their respective professional roles.

To Max's chagrin, Olivier is put in charge of the investigation and she is banned from an official investigative role. The value of vineyards and champagne companies is at an all-time high, and Olivier learns that there are several people attempting to gain control of Lea's business at the time of her death. Max, quietly using the sleuthing skills inherited from her famous detective dad, she insinuates herself into the victim's family until their long-held secrets begin to spill out like marbles from an overturned dish.

After another family member is found dead on the day of Lea's funeral, however, Max puts her career, and her tentative relationship with Olivier, in jeopardy as her determination to find the murderer-and prove herself in the process-takes over.

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Title: Coorparoo Blues and the Irish Fandango
Author: G. S. Manson
Series Character: Jack Munro
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Jack Munro is a private investigator in 1943 Brisbane (Australia).

His first case: Brisbane, 1943. A provincial Australian city has turned almost overnight into the main Allied staging post for the war in the Pacific. The social, sexual, and racial tensions stirred up by the arrival of tens of thousands of US troops provoke all kinds of mayhem, and Brisbane's once quiet streets are suddenly looking pretty mean.

Enter Jack Munro, a World War I veteran and ex-cop with a nose for trouble and a stubborn dedication to exposing the truth, however inconvenient it might be for those in charge. He's not always an especially good man, but he's the one you want on your side when things look bad.

When Jack's hired by a knockout blonde to find her no-good missing husband, he turns over a few rocks he isn't supposed to, and the questions start to pile up, along with the bodies. Not inclined to take no for an answer, he forges on through the dockside bars, black-market warehouses, and segregated brothels of his roiling city, uncovering more than a few surprises in this murky tale based on actual events in a little-known corner of the WW2 theatre.

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Title: The Colonel's Mistake
Author: Dan Mayland
Series Character: Mark Sava
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Mark Sava is a former CIA station chief ofAzerbaijan.

His first case: Mark Sava lives a quiet life as a professor at Western University in the city of Baku. But his peace is shattered by both the assassination of a high-level American during an international oil conference and the arrest of CIA operations officer Daria Buckingham for the crime.

Sava knows the Iranian American Buckingham well—he personally trained her—and doesn't believe she had anything to do with the murder, so he visits a CIA control center to discuss the situation with the new station chief. When no one answers the outside intercom, Sava overrides the security code and stumbles upon the grisliest scene of his career. Now, he can't help but wonder if he really knows Buckingham as well as he thought …

Determined to find out, Sava soon finds himself and a partner caught in the middle of the new Great Game—a deadly intelligence war over oil that has Iran, China, and the United States clawing at each other's throats. Meanwhile, Colonel Henry Amato, assistant to the US national security advisor, is keeping a close watch on the situation from Washington. His stake in the Great Game is high—and personal.

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Title: Dying to Read
Author: Lorena McCourtney
Series Character: Cate Kinkaid
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Cate Kinkaid is a newly licensed private investigator.

Her first case: Cate Kinkaid is just dipping her toe into the world of private investigating until one of the many résumés she has floating around lands her a real job. All she has to do is determine that a particular woman lives at a particular address. Simple, right? When the big and brooding house happens to contain a dead body, this routine PI job turns out to be anything but simple. Is Cate in over her head?

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Title: The Shadow of the Rock
Author: Thomas Mogford
Series Character: Spike Sanguinetti
Format: Hardcover

What we know about the character: Spike Sanguinetti is an attorney in Gibraltar.

His first case: On a humid summer night, Spike finds Solomon Hassan, an old school friend, waiting on his doorstep. Accused of murdering a Spanish girl in Tangiers, Solomon swears his innocence. He has managed to skip across the Straits, but the Moroccan authorities demand his return.

Spike travels to Tangiers in the hope of delaying the extradition. Solomon's boss, Nadeer — the founder of a renewable-energy company called Dunetech that is on the verge of financing an enormous solar-powered site in the Sahara — suggests that if Spike can delay Solomon's trial until after the deal is signed, he will persuade the governor of Tangiers to bury the extradition demand. Complicating this offer, Spike encounters a Bedouin girl who insists that Dunetech is engaged in a nefarious scheme linked to the disappearance of her father.

As Spike uncovers the truth, he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a world of secrets, corruption, and murderous lies.

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Title: Summon Up The Blood
Author: R. N. Morris
Series Character: Silas Quinn
Format: Hardcover

What we know about the character: Silas Quinn a Detective Inspector with Scotland Yard in this early 20th century historical series.

His first case: London, 1914. A killer is at liberty in the dark alleys of the city. The cadavers of his victims all have one thing in common: there is no blood in their bodies. As the killer's reign of terror continues, DI Silas Quinn finds his suspicions focusing on the members of an exclusive gentleman's club …

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Title: The Session Man
Author: Robert J. Randisi
Series Character: Augusto "Auggie" Velez-Colon, Music City
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Augusto "Auggie" Velez-Colon is a private investigator in Nashville.

His first case: Auggie is an Afghan vet who learned how to play the guitar during his military stint. After returning home he pursued his music and eventually turned up in Nashville, where he is now — eight years later — an in demand session musician. He plays and sings on other people's recordings, does occasional show and tour work while waiting for a chance to record his own songs.

In the meantime he does private eye work, which usually consists of serving paper, taking photos and tailing suspects. But now he's been hired by record exec Corky Barnes to deliver an attaché case to an unknown man. He is paid $5,000 and also offered a chance to record. When the man turns up murdered Auggie must find the item he delivered--difficult because he doesn't even know what it was--and clear himself of a possible murder charge.

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Title: Blood Bath & Beyond
Author: Michelle Rowen
Series Character: Sarah Dearly, Immortality Bites
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the character: Sarah Dearly is a fledgling vampire and amateur sleuth.

Her first case: Being engaged to a centuries-old master vampire can be challenging—especially when he takes a job with the Ring, the secret council in charge of keeping vampires in line. Thierry's in for fifty years of nonstop travel and deadly risk. It's enough to make any woman reconsider the wedding … any woman except Sarah, that is!

Traveling with him to Las Vegas for his first assignment, they encounter a child beauty pageant contestant from hell, as well as a vampire serial killer leaving victims drained of blood, potentially exposing the existence of vampires to the whole world. But when Thierry's truly ancient history comes back to haunt him, and he's accused of a crime he didn't commit, it's up to Sarah to clear his name before their immortal lives come to an end.

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Title: Deadly Politics
Author: Maggie Sefton
Series Character: Molly Malone
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Molly Malone works in the office of a US Senator.

Her first case: Molly Malone was driven from Washington, D.C., by political back-stabbing, scandals, and personal heartbreak. But now she's starting a new life in the one place she swore she'd never come back to.

When Molly's only Washington job prospect falls through, her politico niece, Karen, sets her up with a position in the office of a freshman senator. As the former wife of a congressman, Molly is alarmed to hear that Karen is having an affair with her boss, congressional chief of staff Jed Molinoff. Just days later, Molly finds Karen shot to death. Discovering that Molinoff has ransacked Karen's apartment, Molly investigates further … and finds herself in the crosshairs of a shadowy political group that's killing anyone who gets in its way.

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Title: Death of a Schoolgirl
Author: Joanna Campbell Slan
Series Character: Jane Eyre Chronicles
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Jane Eyre is the heroine of the classic novel by Charlotte Brontë.

Her first case: Jane can't help but fret when a letter arrives from Adèle Varens — Rochester's ward, currently at boarding school — warning that the girl's life is in jeopardy. Although it means leaving her young son and invalid husband, and despite never having been to a city of any size, Jane feels strongly compelled to go to London to ensure Adèle's safety.

But almost from the beginning, Jane's travels don't go as planned — she is knocked about and robbed, and no one believes that the plain, unassuming Jane could indeed be the wife of a gentleman; even the school superintendent takes her for an errant new teacher. But most shocking to Jane is the discovery that Adèle's schoolmate has recently passed away under very suspicious circumstances, yet no one appears overly concerned. Taking advantage of the situation, Jane decides to pose as the missing instructor — and soon uncovers several unsavory secrets, which may very well make her the killer's next target …

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For a list of more hardcover mysteries scheduled for publication during August, please visit our New Mysteries home page. If you're interested in new paperbacks, visit The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a library of new mysteries, also updated with August 2012 releases. See also our regularly updated eBook site for new mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers, MysterEbooks.com.

Please also visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120801)

Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

August 2012 List of Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less

Every month Amazon releases a new selection of Kindle books priced $3.99 or less.

We've looked through the August books and listed below those in the "mystery/suspense" category, which includes a few written for young adults.

All but one are currently priced at either $1.99 or $2.99 — the "Rayne Tour" title is $3.99 — for the month of August 2012 only.

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The Black Stiletto by Raymond Benson
A Judy Cooper, "Black Stiletto" Mystery (1st in series)

Could Martin Talbot's elderly, Alzheimer-stricken mother, Judy, really have been the Black Stiletto?

When Martin discovers several volumes of her diaries hidden by his mother, he is stunned beyond all imagination. His mother, the underground heroine of yesteryear? The famed, still unidentified woman who battled Communist spies, took on the Mafia, and preyed on common crooks? The woman who exacted punishment on evildoers without mercy?

But it is all described, in great detail, in the diaries. What caused her to begin her quest for justice. Her decision to act outside the law. Her feats as the famed and feared vigilante. How her reputation exploded. In short, how it all played out. Could it be true?

Talbot is filled with doubt and disbelief. But the reappearance of one of the Stiletto's old enemies with a thirst for merciless revenge makes the story more than real and could imperil the life of not only the Stiletto, but her son and granddaughter as well.

Eyewall by H. W. "Buzz" Bernard

St. Simons Island, Georgia, has never been hit by a Category 5 hurricane. Until now. No one predicted the storm's sudden force. A crippled Air Force recon plane, trapped in the eye of a violent hurricane. An outspoken tropical weather forecaster, fired from his network TV job before he can issue a warning: the storm is changing course and intensifying. A desperate family searching for a runaway daughter on Georgia's posh St. Simons Island, cut off from escape as the hurricane roars toward them. A marriage on the rocks; an unrequited sexual attraction; a May-December romance. All will be swept up by the monster storm.

Silenced by Allison Brennan
A Lucy Kincaid Mystery (4th in series)

It has been seven years since Lucy was attacked — and almost killed — by an online predator. Today, she is well on her way toward a new life. While waiting to begin her training at the FBI Academy, Lucy's is tireless in her fight against cyber sex crime. Her current mission: to find out who killed a high-priced call girl linked to a powerful Congressman.

A number of known prostitutes — with scores of high profile clients — are turning up dead all over D.C. Is this the work of a depraved killer? Or the result of an inside job? Lucy's investigation will take her into an underground network of prostitutes, the chambers of the country's most powerful players, and her own dark past to confront an unknown enemy who's always one step ahead of her. With the help of her P.I. boyfriend Sean Rogan, Lucy must find and protect the only witness who can identify the killer and end the conspiracy, but can the witness be trusted? Lucy will risk everything to expose the truth and ensure justice is served, even if that means putting herself in the line of fire …

Cloaks and Veils by J. C. Carleson

For disgraced CIA officer Dara McIntyre, a new assignment to monitor a troubled junior agent is yet another blow to her once high-flying career. Punished for her affair with a Jordanian spy, Dara is stuck in a dreary desk job at Langley headquarters when orders come down for her to assess whether recently widowed officer Caitlin Wolff is still fit to serve in the field.

Dara soon discovers that the grieving widow has dark secrets; Caitlin and her late husband, Jonathan, were running a lurid shadow operation. Convinced that the couple's unsanctioned acts led to Jonathan's murder, Dara investigates their final operation. Her mission to track the terrorists responsible for the murder and salvage her career takes Dara to the hedonistic playground of Dubai and the chaotic streets of Barcelona. But when the investigation takes a jarring turn, she can no longer be sure who — if anyone — she can trust.

Taking a Stand by Ken Casper
A Coyote Springs Mystery

Homebuilder Jesse Amorado and former Air Force Captain Tori Carr come from the same Texas town but from very different worlds. When she returns home to Coyote Springs to help her father, a real-estate developer, turn the seediest neighborhood into an exclusive resort for the wealthy, Tori and Jesse immediately clash. He'll do whatever it takes to save his heritage, and she is caught up in proving herself to her father.

As personal tensions rise and local trouble begins to brew, Jesse and Tori fall in love-despite it all. They soon find, however, that they must not only confront vested interests and prejudices, they have to fight for their very lives.

The Great Stink by Clare Clark

Set in 1855, this is the story of William May, an engineer who has returned home to London from the horrors of the Crimean War. When he secures a job transforming the city's sewer system, he believes that he will be able to find salvation in the subterranean world beneath the city. But the peace of the tunnels is shattered by a murder, and William is implicated as the killer. Could he truly have committed the crime? How will he bring the truth above-ground?

Final Touch by Brandilyn Collins and Amberly Collins
A Rayne Tour Mystery for Young Adults (3rd in series)

The day Shaley O'Conner has dreamed of all her life is shattered by a nightmare. On a lavish estate in California guarded from the media, Shaley's mom, rock star Rayne O'Connor, is marrying her teen sweetheart and Shaley's father, Gary Donovon. It's a dream come true for Shaley, who has always longed for the father she never knew.

But minutes before the wedding, Shaley is kidnapped. Who is this man who has taken her — and why? As Rayne and Gary race against time to find their daughter, Shaley's abductor eludes the FBI at every turn. Fearing for her life, Shaley wills herself to stay strong. But as the days pass, she realizes that no one can save her but herself.

Amos Walker: The Complete Story Collection by Loren D. Estleman
An Amos Walker Short Story Collection

Thirty years ago Loren D. Estleman introduced the world to his Detroit detective Amos Walker. In celebration of this anniversary, Estleman has collected every previously published Walker short story in this massive volume, including a brand-new story never before published!

Solo by Jack Higgins

Piano virtuoso John Mikali's flair as a musician is matched only by his skill as an assassin. The trail of bodies he's left in his wake is proof. But when he kills a young woman while fleeing from a murder scene, the woman's father, a special forces soldier in the British military, vows to avenge his daughter's death.

Now, both men are locked in a deadly game, playing for the ultimate stakes.

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason
A Reykjavik Murder Mystery (4th in series, though only the 2nd to be translated into English)

A corpse is found on a hill outside the city, and Detective Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson and his team think the body may have been buried for some years.

While Erlendur struggles to hold together the crumbling fragments of his own family, slowly but surely he finds out the truth about another unhappy family. Few people are still alive who can tell the tale, but even secrets taken to the grave cannot remain hidden forever.

The Dead of Summer by Mari Jungstedt
An Anders Knutas Mystery (5th in series)

A husband and father of two is mysteriously murdered while on holiday, taking a morning jog. With no evidence of a motive or suspect, assistant commissioner Karin Jacobsson is assigned to her first major case to lead the investigation while her boss, Superintendent Anders Knutas is away on holiday.

Meanwhile, TV reporter Johan Berg keeps pace with the police team, while at the same time distracted in trying to win back his former love and the mother of his child, Emma Winarve, who resides on the island.

The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl
A Nina Borg Mystery (1st in series)

Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help — even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.

Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.

Divine Inspiration by Jane Langton
A Homer Kelly Mystery (10th in series)

An infant crawls in the dark, up the cold stone steps of Boston's Church of the Commonwealth. It is a miracle that Alan Starr notices the child, so focused is he on the church's new organ, whose pipes he is about to hear for the first time. He takes the baby in his arms and goes inside to inspect the magnificent new instrument, designed to the specifications of the church's master organist, mentor to Alan and to Rosalind, the baby's mother. When Alan takes the child to his neighboring home, he finds blood on the floor and no trace of Rosalind. In what should be the church's finest hour, tragedy has struck.

With the help of Homer Kelly, Harvard professor and casual sleuth, Alan combs the city for the missing mother. Together they learn that even God's house can be a haven for the devil.

The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y. S. Lee
A Mary Quinn, Agency Mystery for Young Adults (3rd in series)

Queen Victoria has a little problem: there's a petty thief at work in Buckingham Palace. Charged with discretion, the Agency puts quickwitted Mary Quinn on the case, where she must pose as a domestic while fending off the attentions of a feckless Prince of Wales. But when the prince witnesses the murder of one of his friends in an opium den, the potential for scandal looms large. And Mary faces an even more unsettling possibility: the accused killer, a Chinese sailor imprisoned in the Tower of London, shares a name with her long-lost father.

Meanwhile, engineer James Easton, Mary's onetime paramour, is at work shoring up the sewers beneath the palace, where an unexpected tunnel seems to be very much in use. Can Mary and James trust each other (and put their simmering feelings aside) long enough to solve the mystery and protect the Royal Family?

Bonegrinder by John Lutz

When the men find him, the boy's legs look like they were run through a wood-chipper. He's bleeding heavily and near death, but he still has strength to tell them of the monster that attacked him: a dark, massive creature that emerged from the bottom of the lake. The child dies before he can say more.

Sheriff Billy Wintone has seen too much superstition, drunkenness, and rage in this small Ozarks town to believe the delirious boy's tale of a monster lurking under the lake's dark waters. Like it or not, however, Wintone must scour the woods for the man or beast who killed the child before the start of fishing season. When another body is found chewed to pieces, the Sheriff begins to wonder what evil lies at the bottom of Big Water Lake.

Dead is a Battlefield by Marlene Perez
A Dead Is … Mystery for Young Adults (6th in series)

Jessica Walsh is starting her freshman year at Nightshade High and trying to forget about the tragic events surrounding her brother's graduation. She wants to have a normal high school experience. But that's easier said than done in Nightshade. There's a new guy at school who seems to be turning the girls into lovesick zombies. And Jessica has other worries—like her crush on a cute but moody lead singer, and the mysterious tattoo that appeared on her arm one day that lets her know whenever there is trouble brewing. Jessica learns she's a Virago, a woman warrior chosen to fight evil whenever it threatens her hometown. But does a lowly freshman really have what it takes to keep Nightshade safe?

Ready, Scrap, Shoot by Joanna Campbell Slan
A Kiki Lowenstein Mystery (5th in series)

With bills piling up and a brassy new partner at her scrapbooking shop, the last thing Kiki Lowenstein needs is a surprise visit from her browbeating mother. But when shots fired into the crowd narrowly miss Kiki at her daughter's May Day pageant, it's another mother — St. Louis's wealthiest matriarch — who winds up dead.

While creating a memorial album for the murdered beer heiress, Kiki becomes bait in a dangerous trap as threats from her old foe mount against her. With help from friends in high and low places, including hunky beau Chad Detweiler, Kiki finds herself facing a grave ultimatum: catch the killer or be cropped out of her own family album.

Deadfolk by Charlie Williams
A Royston Blake Mystery (1st in series)

Royston Blake is head doorman at Hoppers Wine Bar & Bistro in the backwater English town of Mangel. He drives a Ford Capri 2.8i and can walk the streets of his town knowing he's respected by one and all — until a rumor begins to circulate that Blake's "lost his bottle".

Even his sharp-tongued girl, Sal, has overheard the talk that the formerly fearsome bloke has gone soft, lost his edge, and become a pushover in a town where he can ill afford it. To make matters worse, the violent Munton brothers are after him, and the thought of ending up in the back of their bloody Meat Wagon is almost too much to bear. Something's gotta give, but it sure as hell won't be Blake.

Following advice from his best mate, Legsy, Blake embarks on a plan to re-establish his reputation as a hard man, ensure his appeal to the women of Mangel, and seal his future with the new owner of Hoppers. The logic of the plan is sound: knock around Baz Munton a bit and regain the respect of Mangel's populace. But sound logic never really took off in Mangel, and Blake finds he's got his work cut out for him.

Important Note: Any prices mentioned above were correct as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

Bharti Kirchner, Author of the Mitra Basu Mysteries

by Bharti Kirchner

We are delighted to welcome novelist Bharti Kirchner as our guest.

The author of several novels and cookbooks, Tulip Season (Booktrope Editions, May 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats) is Bharti's first mystery.

Today Bharti writes about getting intimate with your main character. And she is giving one of our readers a chance to win a copy of her book; details below.

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Mitra Basu, a young Seattle landscape designer, is the amateur sleuth in my recently released novel Tulip Season: A Mitra Basu Mystery. I must say I've known her much longer than that.

Photo provided courtesy of
Bharti Kirchner

Years ago, an image of a seventeen-year-old girl had flashed into my head. She'd been sent to Alaska by her mother in India. Alone? At such a young age? In such a bitter cold climate? Just the word Alaska alone is enough to make many Indians shiver.

I had no idea where the image came from and didn't dwell on it. Much later, when I began writing Tulip Season, I realized that Mitra was that young girl and Alaska was her backstory. Self-reliance is built into her bones. She somehow manages to survive in Alaska, get an education, and relocate to Seattle.

As the book opens, Mitra, a dedicated gardener, receives the news that her best friend Kareena has disappeared. Flowers are a solace for her. "(Mitra) paced frantically back and forth in front of the window, too keyed up to sit still. The plum tree in her north yard was a billowy cloud of delicate white blossoms."

Soon Mitra jumps into action, despite threat from Kareena's husband, Adi. There's a bit of irony here. Kareena is a domestic violence counselor and Mitra suspects Adi of wrong-doing. She just can't prove anything.

Neither Adi nor police would do much, so Mitra gathers friends and community members and goes in search of Kareena. "Her career focus in art and botany — the study of the physiology of new growth, the awareness of color and light, and harmony of arrangements — hadn't prepared her to confront a situation like this. She looked up to the sky, out of a gardener's propensity to check the weather. The blue infinity helped her to see beyond the immediate, and provided her with an approach."

Weeks roll by. Mitra is constantly thwarted in her attempts to find Kareena. She loses clients. Friends begin to question her. Her days are bereft of their shine. "(T)he sky resembled an unlit charcoal oven." Still, Mitra doesn't give up.

Her quest eventually leads her to India. "(S)he contemplated her arrival. Kolkata — noise and dust, twisty alleys, impossible traffic, and still with scenic beauty and friendliness. Would Kareena gasp in amazement when she saw Mitra in the midst of such chaos and beauty? Would she want to empty out the contents of her heart and say, "Let's go sit and catch up?" With warmth and only the tiniest touch of chiding, Mitra would convey her concerns: How could you leave your best friend imagining the worst for so many weeks? Don't ever go missing on me again."

Such a pleasant outcome might not be in the stars. Mitra will have many more challenges ahead of her. What I've learned from Mitra is this: If you believe in something strongly, then don't give up, even if everyone is telling you to do so, even if everything around you seems to be conspiring against you.

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Bharti Kirchner is the author of nine books and hundreds of short pieces for magazines and newspapers; her essays have appeared in ten anthologies. Bharti has won a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship, a 4-Culture Literature Award, a City Artist's Project award, two Seattle Arts Commission literature grants, two Artist Trust literature grants, and has twice been a Fellow of Jack Straw Productions. She has been honored as a Living Pioneer Asian American Author.

Prior to becoming a writer, Bharti worked as a systems engineer for IBM and as a systems manager for Bank of America, San Francisco. She has also worked in Europe and other continents as a computer systems consultant. She currently calls Seattle home. Learn more about the author by visiting her website at BhartiKirchner.com.

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Tulip Season
Bharti Kirchner
A Mitra Basu Mystery

A missing domestic-violence counselor … A wealthy and callous husband … A dangerous romance …

Kareena Sinha, an Indian-American domestic-violence counselor, disappears from her Seattle home. When the police dismiss suspicions that she herself was a victim of spousal abuse, her best friend, Mitra Basu, a young landscape designer, resolves to find her.

Mitra's search reveals glimpses of a secret life involving her friend and a Bollywood actor of ill repute. Following the trail, Mitra is lured back to India where she uncovers the actor's ties to the Mumbai underworld and his financial difficulties - landing her in a web of life-threatening intrigue where Mitra can't be sure of Kareena's safety or her own.

        

For a chance to win a copy of Tulip Season, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Bharti Kirchner: Tulip Season" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code — 2872 — for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends August 8th, 2012.)

Scholastic Unveils New Harry Potter Reading Club Website

Scholastic unveiled a new website earlier this week, the Harry Potter Reading Club. "Your reading adventure awaits."

The site seems to be written more for teachers than anyone else, but does include a wealth of information about the series, including a couple of entertaining reference sections, such as a Glossary of Terms ("From Apparate to Zonko's"), a Pronunciation Guide ("Ever wonder how to pronounce Eeylops?"), and a comprehensive overview of the books in the series.

You have to have a free Scholastic account to get past the home splash page.